Articles

The personal cost of alcoholism is tremendous. In 1984, it was estimated that alcohol-related deaths may run as high as 10% of all deaths each year. The alcoholic's life expectancy is shortened by 15 years. Their mortality rate is two and a half times greater than that of nonalcoholics. They have a higher rate of violent deaths. Alcohol use figures prominently in accidental death and violent death for alcoholics and nonalcoholics.

Alcohol is the significant factor in motor-vehicle fatalities. Although on a bright note, the number of fatalities involving alcohol is on the decline. Between 1980 and 1984, there was a drop from 50% to 43%, which represents a 14% decline. Similarly, there has been a decline in deaths from cirrhosis. In fatal accidents involving pedestrians, 45% of those pedestrians had blood alcohol levels of 0.10%, the usual legal standard for intoxication. In fire-related deaths, alcohol is involved in a minimum of 50% of all cases. Alcohol is believed to be involved in approximately 50% of home accidents and about 70% of all drownings.

Alcohol plays a significant role in suicide. Studies indicate that in 4 out of 5 suicide attempts, the individual had been drinking, and that 35%—40% of all successful suicides are of non-alcoholics but alcohol related. Half of all successful suicides are alcoholics.

Alcohol use is a significant factor in cases of homicide and family violence. In as many as 67% of all homicides either the victim or the assailant, or both, had been drinking. Similarly, drinking is seen as a precipitating factor in child abuse, wife beatings, and other family disruptions. Though the data on family violence remains limited, estimates of the role of intoxication vary from 30% to over 70%, depending on the particular population studied. A 1980 report of the Institute of Medicine, citing a figure at the higher range, indicated that in two thirds of incidents of family violence, alcohol was significantly implicated.

Crime and alcohol

Alcohol is also reflected in the national crime statistics. As noted already, drinking is implicated in over half of all homicides, and figures prominently in family violence. It is a significant factor in assaults in general, for 72% of the perpetrators and 79% of the victims alcohol was seen as playing a role. In attempted and completed rapes, alcohol again was involved: for 50% of the rapists and for 30% of the victims alcohol was a prominent feature. In cases of robbery, up to 22% of the offenders had been drinking. The current estimate of the total national bill for alcohol-related crimes and misdemeanors is $3 billion.

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